Display Unit For Ball Mount Hitches

ABSTRACT

A display unit for ball mount hitches includes hitch ball hangers and ball mount hangers received on a horizontal support beam. Each hitch ball hanger has two vertically-spaced cantilevered forks to support six hitch balls by their necks. Each ball mount hanger has a cantilevered bar to hang three ball mounts by their hitch ball post holes. Both the hitch ball hangers and the ball mount hangers have slide brackets to toollessly attach to the horizontal support beam.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

None.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Shelf management is an important part of any retail business. Retail shelving should present an attractive and organized collection of items, and allow customers to easily view and select among the shelved items. The retail shelving should hold as many items as possible in a stable configuration, permit easy counting of items in the shelf display, and permit easy replacement of goods in the shelf display as the items are sold.

For a number of reasons and as noted in U.S. Pat. No. 7,137,516, incorporated by reference, it is difficult to effectively display trailer hitch hardware on a shelf. Hitches typically use a number of different pieces of hardware, including hitch balls, ball mounts, locking pins, and the like. The hitch balls and ball mounts are typically available in a number of different sizes and possibly a number of different shapes. The typical shapes of hitch balls and ball mounts make it difficult to stack or otherwise attractively arrange the hardware on a shelf. The hitch balls and ball mounts are also typically fairly heavy, making mishandling or dropping even more of an issue. While U.S. Pat. No. 7,137,516 shows one solution for shelf mounting of ball mounts, its construction is expensive and doesn't permit the flexibility desired for displaying different ball mounts and hitch balls. Better solutions are needed.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a display unit for ball mount hitches, including both one or more hitch ball hangers and one or more ball mount hangers received on a horizontal support beam. The hitch ball hanger has a fork, or more preferably two forks, each with cantilevered tines defining an opening sized to receive a hitch ball by its neck, so hitch ball(s) can be hung by the fork(s) with the ball of each hitch ball on top and the post of the hitch ball hanging thereunder. The ball mount hanger has a cantilevered bar sized to be received in a hitch ball post hole of a ball mount, so the ball mount(s) can be hung by the bar extending through the hitch ball post hole. Both the hitch ball hanger(s) and the ball mount hanger(s) preferably use slide brackets to toollessly attach to the horizontal support beam.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing assembly of a preferred display unit for hitch balls and ball mounts.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a ball mount hanger used in the display unit of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a top view of the ball mount hanger of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a side view of the ball mount hanger of FIGS. 2 and 3.

FIG. 5 is a front view of the ball mount hanger of FIGS. 2-4.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a hitch ball hanger used in the display unit of FIG. 1.

FIG. 7 is a top view of the hitch ball hanger of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a side view of the hitch ball hanger of FIGS. 6 and 7.

FIG. 9 is a top view of a preferred blank used to form the preferred hitch ball hanger of FIGS. 6-8.

FIG. 10 is a side view of the blank of FIG. 9 after folding.

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the folded blank of FIG. 10.

While the above-identified drawing figures set forth a preferred embodiment, other embodiments of the present invention are also contemplated, some of which are noted in the discussion. In all cases, this disclosure presents the illustrated embodiments of the present invention by way of representation and not limitation. Numerous other minor modifications and embodiments can be devised by those skilled in the art which fall within the scope and spirit of the principles of this invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As shown in FIG. 1, a preferred display unit 10 in accordance with the present invention includes both ball mount hangers 12 and hitch ball hangers 14, both of which can by hung from a rail system 16. The preferred rail system 16 includes a horizontal cross rail 18 which can be hung from vertical supports 20, similar to the vertical support hanging structures taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,641,081, 5,611,440 and 5,048,698, each incorporated by reference.

In general terms, the vertical supports 20 have a number of slots 22 along their height. End plates 24 of the cross rail 20 include clips or teeth (not shown) which mate into these slots 22, which hold the cross rail 18 at a height selected by the retail store. The cross rail 18 can be moved and repositioned by lifting the cross rail 18 upward in the slots 22 and rotating the bottom of the cross rail 18 outward away from the slots 22, and then pulling the cross rail 18 away from the vertical supports 20 while lowering the cross rail 18 at an angle. The cross rail 18 has the same length as the spacing between adjacent vertical supports 20. Each cross rail 18 provides a display 10 of this length and about one and a half feet in height, so multiple cross rails 18 (only one shown) can be used at different heights to display more ball mounts 26 and hitch balls 28. Alternatively, other support structures and methods known in the art can be used for supporting the horizontal cross rail 18.

The preferred cross rail 18 is a rectangular beam, preferably having its height greater than its depth, with a most preferred size being about 4 inches high, about 2 inches deep and about 48 inches long. By being rectangular, the beam 18 includes flats 30 that can be used by the hangers 12, 14 to support a cantilevered weight. The preferred hangers 12, 14 bias off nearly the entire 4 inch height (all except for the radius of the corner 32) to support the weight of the hitch balls 28 and ball mounts 26. The preferred material for the cross rail 18 is ASTM A-500 grade B hot rolled steel having a 10 gauge (about 0.13 inches) wall thickness. The preferred material for the end plates 24 is ASTM A-36 hot rolled steel at about 0.188 inches in thickness, joined to the cross rail 18 such as by merge welds. Other strong materials can alternatively be used for either or both the cross rail 18 and the end plates 24 so long as they can support the weight of the display 10.

As better shown in FIGS. 2-5, the ball mount hangers 12 each include a slide bracket 34, preferably formed of bent sheet metal to have a back 36, a top 38, and a front 40. The back 36, top 38, and front 40 each provide flats which mate with the flats 30 of the cross rail 18 to support the cantilevered weight of the ball mounts 26 and hitch balls 28. The front 40 of the slide bracket 34 is preferably about 4 inches tall, to contact and bias off the entire front of the cross rail 18. The back 36 of the slide bracket 34 does not need to be so tall, with the preferred back 36 being about 3 inches tall. By having the back 36 and the front 40 different heights, the bracket 34 is easier for a user to position on the cross rail 18. The top 38 spaces the back 36 and the front 40 by about 2 inches to match the 2 inch depth of the preferred cross rail 18. With the side-view shape of the slide bracket 34 matching around the side-view shape of the rectangular beam cross rail 18, the slide bracket 34 can be placed onto the rectangular beam and then slid longitudinally to a desired location. Sliding of the slide bracket 34 is considerably easier before the weight of the ball mounts 26 are on the ball mount hanger 12.

The width of the slide bracket 34 determines the minimum horizontal spacing of ball mounts 26 and hitch balls 28 in the display 10. The preferred width is 3 ½ inches, so a cross rail 18 can hold about thirteen hangers 12, 14. The preferred slide bracket 34 is formed from 0.188 inch thick ASTM A36 hot rolled steel.

The front 40 of the ball mount hanger 12 has a projecting hanger rod 42 for supporting one or more ball mounts 26 in a cantilevered position relative to the cross rail 18. The hanger rod 42 needs to be small enough to fit loosely within the hitch ball post hole 44 on the ball mount 26. At the same time, the hanger rod 42 needs to be large enough to support the weight of however many ball mounts 26 it will hold. The hanger rod 42 extends generally horizontal and generally normal to the cross beam 18. As known in the art of hanger rod displays, the hanger rod 42 includes a straight length with a shorter upturned tip 46. In the preferred embodiment, the hanger rod 42 is formed by bending an about 10 ½ inch long, ½ inch diameter cylindrical metal bar, with the shorter upturned tip 46 being about 1 inch long. This length and diameter, when formed of ASTM A36 hot rolled steel, is appropriate for hanging three ball mounts 26, depicted in FIG. 1 as 2×2 inch receiver tube ball mounts 26 with a total weight of about 38 lbs. The preferred hanger rod 42 can readily support fewer or lighter or smaller ball mounts than shown, or could be made thicker or thinner to be appropriately sized for the ball mounts which will be hung at that particular display.

The upturned tip 46 helps the ball mounts 26 from unintentionally sliding off the end of the hanger rod 42. The hanger rod 42 preferably has a slight backslope α to further assist the ball mounts 26 in staying on the hanger rod 42. In the preferred embodiment, the hanger rod 42 slopes downwardly and backwardly at an angle α of about 4° to horizontal. The upturned tip 46 is bent at about 20° to the main portion of the hanger rod 42, i.e., the upturned tip 46 of the preferred hanger rod 42 slopes at an angle β of about 24° to horizontal.

As depicted, the ball mounts 26 are preferably hung on the hanger rod 42 from the tongue 48, showing the top face of the ball mounts 26 outward. This presents a visually pleasing line up of ball mounts 26, and information (not shown) on the front face of the outermost ball mount 26 can be read by a customer without removing the ball mounts 26 from the hanger rod 42.

A triangle brace 50 is attached to the top 38 of the slide bracket 34. In the preferred embodiment, the triangle brace 50 is joined to the slide bracket 34 at fillet welds 52, but other firm methods of attachment will equivalently connect the triangle brace 50 to the slide bracket 34. The triangle brace 50 helps to prevent flexing of the slide bracket 34 at its corners (i.e., flexing between the back 36, top 38 and front 40) when supporting the weight of the ball mounts 26. With the triangle brace 50, the ball mount hanger 12 supports the weight of the three ball mounts 26 with minimal give or slop relative to the cross rail 18. The triangle brace 50 also provides a convenient location for labeling, such as supporting a readily removable price label 53 (sized up to about 1 ¼×3 inch, shown in FIGS. 2, 3, and 5-7) at the point of sale. The preferred triangle brace 50 angles the price label 53 at 45° relative to vertical, for easy viewing by a consumer. The preferred material for the triangle brace 50 is ASTM A36 hot rolled steel having a 10 gauge (about 0.13 inches) wall thickness.

Like the ball mount hangers 12, the hitch ball hangers 14 each include a slide bracket 54 and a triangle brace 50, better shown in FIGS. 6-8. The back 36 and top 38 of the slide bracket 54 for the hitch ball hangers 14 can be identical to the back 36 and top 38 of the slide bracket 34 for the ball mount hangers 12. With similar slide brackets 34, 54, both the hitch ball hanger 14 and the ball mount hanger 12 can be toollessly positioned onto the cross beam 18 so as to be supported in place. The front 56 of the slide bracket 54 for the hitch ball hangers 14 is preferably taller than the front 40 of the slide bracket 34 for the ball mount hangers 12, so the hitch ball hangers 14 can include two ball plates 58 rather than a single hanger rod 42. In the preferred embodiment, the front 56 of the slide bracket 54 for the hitch ball hangers 14 is about 8 ⅓ inches long. The two forks or ball plates 58 are vertically spaced about 5 inches apart, corresponding to slightly greater than the height of a standard hitch ball 28 and post 60.

Each ball plate 58 is formed as a fork which includes two tines 62 extending on either side of the neck 64 of the hitch ball 28 to support the hitch ball 28 in a cantilevered position relative to the cross rail 18. The tines 62 should be spaced to define an opening sized to receive a hitch ball neck 64. More preferably, the tines 62 are spaced to support a range of standard hitch balls including different ball sizes. In the preferred embodiment, the two tines 62 are spaced by about 1 ⅜ inches, for holding balls which are 1 ½ inch or greater in diameter with a neck diameter no greater than 1 ⅜ inches. The hitch balls 28 are hung with the ball of the hitch ball 28 on top and the post 60 and nut of the hitch ball 28 hanging under the ball. The tines 62 extend generally horizontal and generally normal to the cross beam 18.

The generally horizontal support surface 62 of the ball plates 58 preferably has a slight slope opposite to the slope of the hanger rod 42, which presents a visually pleasing array of downward and upward slopes to contrast the hitch balls 28 to the ball mounts 26. In the preferred embodiment, the ball plates 58 slope upward and rearward at a slope y of about 16° to horizontal.

The ball plates 58 have two downwardly extending side flanges 66 on either side of the tines 62. The downwardly extending side flanges 66 help make a strong assembly and support the cantilevered weight of the hitch balls 28. In the preferred embodiment, the side flanges 66 extend about 1 ½ inches downward from the top of the tines 62.

Each ball plate 58 can be formed of a blank 68 of sheet metal as shown in FIG. 9, which is folded to define the horizontal support surface 62 extending between the two vertically extending flanges 66. The ball plate 58 is joined to the front 56 of the slide bracket 54 such as at fillet welds 70. Each ball plate 58 can preferably hold more than one hitch ball 28, with the preferred ball plates 58 extending about 8 inches to be able to hold three hitch balls 28. With two ball plates 58, a hitch ball hanger 14 can hold six hitch balls 28, with the upper fork 58 hanging its hitch balls 28 vertically above the hitch balls 28 hung on the lower fork 58. The six hitch balls are depicted in FIG. 1 as 2 5/16″ diameter hitch balls 28 with a total weight of about 25 lbs. The preferred material for the ball plate 58 is 11 gauge (about 0.12 inch thick) ASTM hot rolled steel, and other strong materials can alternatively be used.

At the front of the ball plates 58, the tines 62 slope in the opposite direction, so the front of the ball plate 58 provides a trough 72 for the frontmost hitch ball 28. For a symmetrical appearance, the tine tips 74 slope downward and rearward at the opposite slope δ that the tines 62 in general slope upward and rearward, i.e., both at 16° to horizontal. The ornamental appearance of the ball plates 58 and the hitch ball hanger 14 is further detailed in U.S. Pat. App. No. 29/XXX,XXX, filed on even date herewith and incorporated by reference.

The display 10 of the present invention thus provides an inexpensive and attractive solution to effectively display hitch balls and ball mounts for sale. The display 10 provides flexibility for the store owner to select the specific configuration and spacing of different sizes of hitch balls and ball mounts, and stocking and inventory of the hitch balls and ball mounts is simpler. Mishandling or dropping of the heavy items by consumers is largely avoided, while their selection of a desired combination of hitch ball and ball mount is easier.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments, workers skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A display unit for ball mount hitches, comprising: a horizontal support beam; a hitch ball hanger, the hitch ball hanger having a fork with cantilevered tines defining an opening sized to receive a hitch ball in a neck of the hitch ball, so the hitch ball can be hung by the fork with a ball of the hitch ball on top and a post of the hitch ball hanging under the ball, the hitch ball hanger having a support bracket which mates with the horizontal beam so the tines extend generally horizontal and generally normal to the horizontal beam; and a ball mount hanger, the ball mount hanger having a cantilevered bar sized to be received in a hitch ball post hole of a ball mount, so the ball mount can be hung by the bar extending through the hitch ball post hole, the ball mount hanger having a support bracket which mates with the horizontal beam so the bar extends generally horizontal and generally normal to the horizontal beam.
 2. The display unit of claim 1, wherein the display unit comprises a plurality of hitch ball hangers and a plurality of ball mount hangers which can be simultaneously supported by the horizontal beam.
 3. The display unit of claim 1, wherein the tines are of sufficient length to support a plurality of hitch balls.
 4. The display unit of claim 3, wherein the tines slope downward away from the support bracket, to a front trough.
 5. The display unit of claim 1, wherein the bar is of sufficient length to support a plurality of ball mounts.
 6. The display unit of claim 5, wherein the bar slopes upward away from the support bracket.
 7. The display unit of claim 1, wherein hitch ball hanger comprises at least two forks spaced so each fork can independently hang a hitch ball with the ball of the hitch ball on top and the post of the hitch ball hanging under the ball.
 8. The display unit of claim 7, wherein the two forks are vertically spaced.
 9. The display unit of claim 1, wherein the horizontal support beam comprises a flat, and wherein the support bracket of the hitch ball hanger and the support bracket of the ball mount hanger each comprise a corresponding flat which mates with the flat of the horizontal support beam to support cantilevered weight of the hitch ball and cantilevered weight of the ball mount.
 10. The display unit of claim 9, wherein the horizontal support beam is rectangular, with a height greater than its width.
 11. The display unit of claim 9, wherein the support bracket of the hitch ball hanger and the support bracket of the ball mount hanger can slide horizontally along the horizontal support beam.
 12. The display unit of claim 1, wherein the horizontal support beam comprises a front flat, a top flat and a rear flat, with the front flat and the rear flat each being generally vertical, wherein the support bracket of the hitch ball hanger and the support bracket of the ball mount hanger each comprise a corresponding front flat, top flat and rear flat which mate with the flat of the horizontal support beam to support cantilevered weight of the hitch ball and cantilevered weight of the ball mount, and wherein both the hitch ball hanger and the ball mount hanger can be toollessly positioned onto the horizontal support beam so as to be supported in place.
 13. The display unit of claim 12, wherein the support bracket of the hitch ball hanger and the support bracket of the ball mount hanger each comprise a triangle on a top side of the top flat, the triangle providing strength to the support bracket as it mates over the horizontal support beam.
 14. The display unit of claim 13, wherein the triangle includes a label plate face.
 15. The display unit of claim 1, wherein the tines of the hitch ball hanger are formed of a folded sheet metal blank having a horizontal support surface extending between two vertically extending flanges.
 16. A hitch ball hanger for use in a display unit for ball mount hitches, comprising: an upper fork with cantilevered tines defining an opening sized to receive a hitch ball in a neck of the hitch ball, so the hitch ball can be hung by the upper fork with a ball of the hitch ball on top and a post of the hitch ball hanging under the ball; a lower fork with cantilevered tines defining an opening sized to receive a hitch ball in a neck of the hitch ball, so the hitch ball can be hung by the upper fork with a ball of the hitch ball on top and a post of the hitch ball hanging under the ball, and a support bracket configured to support the upper fork and the lower fork, so the tines of both the upper fork and the lower fork extend generally horizontal, with the upper fork hanging its hitch ball vertically above the hitch ball hung on the lower fork.
 17. The display unit of claim 16, wherein the tines of the upper fork are of sufficient length to support a plurality of hitch balls, and wherein the tines of the lower fork are of sufficient length to support a plurality of hitch balls.
 18. The display unit of claim 16, wherein the tines of the upper fork and the tines of the lower fork both slope downward away from the support bracket, each to a front trough.
 19. A display unit for hitch balls, comprising: a horizontal support beam comprising a front flat, a top flat and a rear flat, with the front flat and the rear flat each being generally vertical; and a hitch ball hanger comprising a support bracket with a front flat, a top flat and a rear flat which mate with the flats of the horizontal support beam to support cantilevered weight of a hitch ball hung from the hitch ball hanger, wherein the hitch ball hanger can be toollessly positioned onto the horizontal support beam so as to be supported in place, and wherein the support bracket of the supported hitch ball hanger can slide horizontally along the horizontal support beam.
 20. The display unit of claim 19, further comprising: a ball mount hanger comprising a support bracket with a front flat, a top flat and a rear flat which mate with the flats of the horizontal support beam to support cantilevered weight of a ball mount hung from the ball mount hanger, wherein the ball mount hanger can be toollessly positioned onto the horizontal support beam so as to be supported in place, and wherein the support bracket of the supported ball mount hanger can slide horizontally along the horizontal support beam. 